


The Sky Is Wide Enough For All Of Us

by LadyArrowhead



Category: Young Avengers (Comics)
Genre: Brotherly Bonding, Gen, Holidays, Tommy getting the love he deservers, Young Avengers Holiday Gift Exchange 2017
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-19 23:36:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,742
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13134549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyArrowhead/pseuds/LadyArrowhead
Summary: " He climbed some random building somewhere in Chicago and watched the skyline with appreciation. He’s taken a picture of it with his phone to remember it by, but since today every other member of the Young Avengers seems to be busy with either Christmas or family celebrations he doesn’t really imagine he’ll get any likes on his Instagram.The cold bites into his fingers as he leans back a little, closing his eyes and listening to the wind rushing between the skyscrapers. Even during the holidays, the windy city doesn’t sleep."Tommy finds out he is not as alone as he thinks he is.





	The Sky Is Wide Enough For All Of Us

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mariemarion](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=mariemarion).



> This work is for the wonderful mariemarion who appreciates Tommy and wished for Billy and Tommy spending sibling time. And oh gosh, isn't the holidays just the best moment for that? So here you go!
> 
> Wonderful holidays to you and whoever is reading this as well <3

There is a certain kind of loneliness that Tommy sometimes thinks only he can feel. Maybe it has to do with the time he spent in juvie, his dickhead parents, or the fact that for him the world moves a lot slower than for anybody else. 

It isn’t a nice feeling. Loneliness never is, no matter what the poets whisper. Sometimes Tommy feels like someone is grabbing for his heart and squeezing, the pain spreading from his chest to his throat, to his fingers, to his lips. Sometimes it fills him with such restlessness and self-pity that he starts moving only to find himself somewhere he has never been before, distracted by new skies and new surroundings.  
This happened today as well. He climbed some random building somewhere in Chicago and watched the skyline with appreciation. He’s taken a picture of it with his phone to remember it by, but since today every other member of the Young Avengers seems to be busy with either Christmas or family celebrations he doesn’t really imagine he’ll get any likes on his Instagram.

The cold bites into his fingers as he leans back a little, closing his eyes and listening to the wind rushing between the skyscrapers. Even during the holidays, the windy city doesn’t sleep. It’s breathing around him, and in a way that helps. As if someone were to breathe with him, helping him not to think too much about the fact that none of his friends bothered to ask him what he would be doing during the holidays.

“Your back is wide open.”

He almost falls off the building.

At first, it bothered Tommy how much Billy sounds like him…and how much he doesn’t. Their voice has the same colour, the same cracks and breaks that came with voice change making them even more similar. But Billy has that kind of softness in his words that he lost a while ago. Both, however carry emotion in their throats.  
And, apparently, a very dry version of smugness.

“GEEZ, you cannot sneak up to me like that!”, Tommy hisses and moves a bit closer to the roof, away from the ledge where he had been relaxing. Turning around, he meets the familiar brown eyes of Billy that make the dark-haired teenage boy almost look innocent.

The red tattered cape and the hovering in the air kind of destroy that image.

“Did you dress up for me or why are you in costume?”

Billy rolls his eyes fondly and lands next to him, his fingers carelessly running through his hair,  
“In a way I am on a mission right now. Saving your sorry ass from spending the holidays alone.”

“I’m not-“

“On top of a roof wearing a t-shirt”

“Well”, Tommy added, “I’m just-“

“In the middle of Chicago”, never had Tommy heard that almost mother hen like voice from Billy before, but here it was as his teammate sat down right next to him.

“Did you really think none of us would notice? Just because it’s Christmas that doesn’t mean I spend the whole day away for my phone.”

“Especially since you are Jewish”, Tommy snorts, trying to ignore that his fingers hurt a little thanks to the cold. His nails look just a little blue in the night but as he breathes into his hands they stop hurting at least.

A familiar twinkle of blue appears before him and a moment later he feels something warm drop onto his shoulders.

“Did you just magick me a coat?”

A light chuckle leaves Billy’s throat, a proud grin appearing on his lips,  
“Maaaaybe. I can’t really watch you sitting around in a t-shirt when we are in the 20s”, the witch answered and cleared his throat, “So…do you want to talk about this?”

About him being here by himself when everybody else has somebody to spend time with? About the fact that he maybe could have asked if he could hang out with someone, but couldn’t bring himself to, too ashamed to admit that, even he was feeling lonely once? Tommy never really does the feelsy talk. He feels a lot, but it’s easier to just act on it instead of talking about everything. Either he swallows everything down or he follows his impulses and lands…well…here.

He shrugs, stretching a little before forcing out that light laughter his friends know him for. Is this the first time it sounds so hollow?

“You know I don’t do feelings, nerd”, he grins and awkwardly reaches for the coat around his shoulders. It’s fluffy inside, so he pulls it a little closer.

“Though… it’s nice of you to hang out with me for once.”

Billy sighs for a moment, his breath visibly escaping his throat. He does not really like to push Tommy regarding these topics, especially since he is good at not-talking, too, just in a different way. Plus, he has Teddy’s arms to come home to whenever he feels like things are getting a little too hard around him.

“Okay”, he answers, carefully standing up again, his costume changing into a simple red winter coat, “What do you want to do instead?”

“Excuse me?”

There is so much surprise in Tommy’s eyes it hurts Billy a little bit. Sure, Tommy loves to joke around, to surround himself with laughter but there is something about him that makes Billy feel like he is a bit older than all of them. And given his background, he has seen and experienced so much shit, well…sometimes that seems like it made him older, too.

Not right now though. Billy feels like he is looking right into a mirror, the same vulnerability in his brother’s eyes that he sees when he looks at himself.

“What do you want to do? I teleported here for you and I won’t leave until I see a smile on your face.”

Tommy grins that kind of loop-sided grin he always gives him whenever he makes a bad joke.

“A real smile.”

“Dude”, Tommy groans, carefully climbing to his feet. The green coat looks warm around him, which is what Billy was going for, “You don’t…I…what about your family…?”

“Standing right here with me. So – where do you want to go?”

Tommy looks a lot smaller all of a sudden, stares at his feet, his hands wandering into the pockets of his jacket while he steps from one foot to the other. When he raises his gaze and looks at Billy again, his smile almost seems shy,  
“How about we go out for fried noodles?”  
-  
After a small google session and some running and teleporting all over Chicago, they find themselves in a restaurant called Toni’s, so small that it hardly fits twenty people in there. Except for them, there are about five other people, each occupying a table for themselves, so they squeeze into the corner all the way in the back. The waitress brings them some jasmine tea on the house to warm up and takes their orders with a big smile on her face.

Tommy can’t hold in another smile. He keeps telling Billy it is just the prospect of food that makes him this happy but Billy isn’t stupid. Which was why he keeps playing along, insisting that Tommy has to invite him somewhere for New Years.

“So you also want to hang out on New Year’s?” Tommy’s voice cracks just a little in disbelief. Billy feels his stomach twist at that. How did he never see just how lonely Tommy feels at times? Right now it hits him in the face with a baseball bat about ten times a second. He has to talk to Teddy after they finished hanging out.

“I thought we all would do something together”, Billy mumbled, taking a sip of his tea. With a light hiss he places the cup back on the table, watching how Tommy just grins at him in amusement.  
“You should have taken your time with that one”, he laughs, leaning back in his chair.

“Because you are all about being slow.”

“I precisely arrive at the time I want to”, Tommy winks, his grin widening even more as Billy gets the reference, “Did I quote that right?”

Their noodles arrive at exactly that moment. With a happy sigh Tommy reaches for his chopsticks and begins to eat right away. Now, with food right in front of him, he notices how hungry he was the whole time.  
“I got the reference”, Billy answers, “I just didn’t know you were interested in Lord of the Rings.”

Tommy shrugs and chews on a piece of chicken with a bright grin on his face,  
“You left your books one day and I was bored so I read them.”

“Wait…”, Billy moves a little closer, raising a brow, “Which one?”

“All of them. I think you brought them for Kate and she brought them back to you because she didn’t have the time and you said you’d take them tomorrow…so I read them.”

“You read all of my Lord of the Rings books.”

“Yup.”  
Tommy has already finished his first bowl. Superspeed is once again an amazing power but it also means that he has to eat far more than his teammates most of the time. Sometimes, when Billy had cast a lot of spells, they’d both spend some time eating massive amounts of food just gaining their energy back.

“When did I pick them up?”, Billy asks. Sometimes the witch is a little dense, Tommy thinks.

“I just told you, duh. In one night. You got them the next day.”

Coughing, Billy reaches for his tea, only to remember that it’s still too hot to drink. A second later a glass of water is standing right next to his soup and he downs that one instead. There is a sparkle of fanboyish excitement in Billy’s eyes that Tommy knows all too well by now.

“That’s just…amazing! You have to tell me all your thoughts about it, why did you never mention you did that?” With a bright smile he continued to eat. “Who was your favourite character? What was your favourite scene? Did you do that with other books as well?”

It feels nice. Being asked so many things, Billy waiting for him to state his opinion. Being listened to. Having something warm in his belly and something warm around his shoulders. It’s all very simple, but to Tommy it just feels good. Almost home.

“Eowyn was my favourite, actually. Though the Mines of Moria had such an amazing feeling when I read it and…yeah. I usually read whatever books you guys leave lying around when I’m bored. Which happens quite often.”

Tommy tries to ignore that warm and fuzzy feeling in his chest, but there it is, spreading from there to his voice and making it smoother, to his arms and fingers, to his cheeks. Laughing feels easier than it does most of the time.

“Why are you not reading the books we have there anyway?”, Billy asks and moves his half-empty bowl towards Tommy. He probably already had something for dinner, but Tommy doesn’t mind. More noodles for him, after all.

“I finished those months ago.”

Now Billy really is coughing. A proud smile spreads over Tommy’s lips. It feels good to be admired, especially by someone as nerdy and, well, smart, as Billy. And what feels even better is that Billy asked him, that Billy wants to know his favourite stories, his favourite characters, what he liked, what he disliked.

It isn’t that his teammates never had ask him that. But speaking about books is something completely different, something that allows others to see more of himself. Things Tommy can’t talk about the other way. Not in a good way, anyway. 

He likes stories that inspire friendships. Stories that focus not on one single protagonist but a group of people, their relations, their mistakes and the way they all work together. He loves Hogwarts houses but when he tells Billy he isn’t sure if he sees himself as a Gryffindor or Slytherin, Billy simply suggests founding his own house. 

They both, it turns out, like stories about people. It does not matter if the conflict is saving the world, stopping the villains from winning or simple high school drama. They all have that plenty in life as is.  
What matters, it seems, are the happy endings. Both Billy and he prefer those vastly over bitter sweetness.

“We could go and read something together next year”, Billy grins and holds one of the empty bowls towards the waitress who is cleaning their table, “Find some story we haven’t read yet and see how we like it. Maybe about 100 pages a week or so?”

Tommy grimaces.  
“I usually finish books in one go, remember?”

“Then I’ll just read it first”, Billy chuckles, “And hand the book over to you afterwards. The moment I am done. So we can talk about it the next day.”  
Tommy stretches and carefully gets to his feet,  
“Sure thing. We’ll pick something out together.”

In that moment they both seem to realize their evening is coming to an end. There is not much to do in Chicago when you are underage and it is Christmas around 2 a.m. Then again, Billy has a family to come home to. People who would look for him if he weren’t in his bed in the morning. Tommy’s smile softens a little as he reaches out and ruffles the other’s hair,  
“I’m just gonna step out for a moment and then be back. Race you to Headquarters’?”

“To your place?”, Billy smirks, “Yeah, sure.”

It takes Tommy exactly two minutes to be back, but when he is Billy is staring at his cell phone with great focus, his smile softening a little as he types out an answer. Probably Teddy, Tommy figures, writing his One True Love another confession. 

Then Billy looks up to meet his eyes, the brown of his eyes looking warm, all focused on him.

“Let’s get you home, Tommy.”

So much for a race.  
-  
They land in their living room and like always after teleporting, Tommy feels like throwing up. At least by now he has managed to keep everything inside. The lights in the living room are dimmed and when Tommy raises his voice to speak, Billy shushes him quietly. With a small gesture, he points to the couch.

As Tommy turns around, he has to fight himself really hard not to make a noise as he sees what Billy is pointing at.

Kate is lying all tangled up with Teddy on the edge, her face buried in the crook of his neck, his chin resting on her head. Eli rests against Teddy’s back, his face so much softer when his eyes are closed, his lips forming a patient smile. Cassie lies halfway on Eli’s lap, her arms holding tightly to a pillow. They are all asleep.

Jonas steps in next to them, carefully arranging a large blanket over the cuddle pile. When he spots Tommy and Billy, he perks up, taking a step closer before wordlessly pulling Tommy into a hug.  
It’s awkward and genuinely touching, a good description of his and Jonas friendship. They live together after all. When he lets go, Tommy notices the lump in his throat. How hard it suddenly feels to speak without sounding whiney.

“W…what is this?”, he asks. Billy and Jonas share a knowing glance.

“While Billy was probably the first to see it, we eventually all noticed your post and came as fast as we could. Since Billy wasn’t answering his phone, not even Teddy’s calls, we figured you guys would probably be together”, Jonas whispers, not a single note of judgement in his voice, “So, we wanted to wait for you to come home, Tommy. As you see, we kind of failed at that.”  
Tommy glances around, his eyes darting back and forth between Jonas smiling encouragingly, Billy trying to take a picture, still wearing that bright red coat he summoned, the pile of people, his friends, his close friends, still asleep on the couch.

“No”, Tommy smiles, allowing the warmth to spread through his body once again, a warmth that this time starts right at his heart and wraps around him even better than the fluffy coat does. “No, you didn’t fail at all.”


End file.
